AOC opens up about being ‘despised’ in Washington

New York Democrat says first term was marked by constant hositility

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is revealing more about the hostile reception she received in the US House upon arriving in Washington for her first term in 2019.

The New York progressive who ousted Joe Crowley, a member of House leadership, likened her experience in Congress to a constant battle with unfriendly fellow Democrats and outright hatred from Republicans in a new interview with GQ.

“My everyday lived experience here is as a person who is despised. Imagine working a job and your bosses don’t like you – and the competing company is trying to kill you,” she explained to the magazine.

She added that her more establishment-aligned colleagues were furious after her win against a Nancy Pelosi acolyte in 2018 and were still showing signs of simmering anger months later when she took office.

One confused elderly Democrat even mistakenly gossiped about her — to her face — at her swearing-in ceremony without realising it.

“It’s a real shame that that girl won,” she recalled the unnamed member quipping. She remembers shooting back: “You know that’s me, right?”

And she spent much of those first two years in office preparing for an inevitable primary challenge — the revenge of the Democratic Party’s centrist faction.

“I feel like everybody treated me like a one-term member of Congress, and they worked to make me a one-term member of Congress,” the congresswoman told GQ. “There was a very concerted effort from the Democratic side to unseat me.

That primary challenge materialised in 2020, but Ms Ocasio-Cortez easily beat back Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, her closest rival, winning by more than 50 points. Her margin of victory was so strong, it scared away any further challenges from her party in 2022.

“I felt a shift after my primary election, and it felt like after that election was the first time that more broadly the party started treating me like a member of Congress and not an accident,” she explained.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez remains a champion of progressive causes including the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all. She most recently made headlines when she chose to join abortion rights protesters outside of the Supreme Court following the overturning of Roe v Wade instead of joining her colleagues for a singing of “God Bless America” outside of the US Capitol.

She is constantly floated as a potential candidate to represent the party’s left flank in future presidential contests, but has not indicated any personal intent to run.